Fast Forward 2: An Interview with Editor Lou Anders

Lou Anders is one of a new breed of editors in Science Fiction and Fantasy who loves genre fiction but also has a lot of interests outside of the field. A 2008/2007 Hugo Award nominee, 2007 Chesley Award nominee, and 2006 World Fantasy Award nominee, Anders has served as the Executive Editor of Bookface.com, and before that he worked as the Los Angeles Liaison for Titan Publishing Group. He is the author of The Making of Star Trek: First Contact (Titan Books, 1996), and has published over 500 articles in such magazines as The Believer, Publishers Weekly, Dreamwatch, Star Trek Monthly, Star Wars Monthly, Babylon 5 Magazine, Sci Fi Universe, Doctor Who Magazine, and Manga Max. His articles and stories have been translated into Danish, Greek, German, Italian and French, and have appeared online at SFSite.com, RevolutionSF.com and InfinityPlus.co.uk.

For the past few years he's been the mastermind behind Pyr, which has published some amazing books. Anders latest project is Fast Forward 2, the second in his SF original anthology series. Contributors include Paul Cornell, Kay Kenyon, Chris Nakashima-Brown, Nancy Kress, Jack Skillingstead, Cory Doctorow, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Jack McDevitt, Paul McAuley, Mike Resnick and Pat Cadigan, Ian McDonald, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Karl Schroeder, Tobias S. Buckell, Jeff Carlson, and Paolo Bacigalupi. You can read an entire free story online and Anders' introduction here. In addition, there's a Pyr group blog, Anders personal blog, the publisher page for the anthology and for Fast Forward 1. It seemed like a good time to talk to Anders about the anthology, which led to discussions of genre and editing in general.

   

Amazon.com: It's one thing to edit a stand-alone anthology of original fiction. It's another to create a series. When you had the idea to do the first Fast Forward, what were your goals for the series as a whole?
Lou Anders: I remember reading an interview with Robert Silverberg once in which he said his goal for his New Dimensions anthology series was to prune science fiction down to just what he considered the legitimate SF of the year. His attempt to take a knife to the genre, cut away the dross, and say, essentially What is left is what I say science fiction is. I admired that audacity (though is it really audacity if your name is Robert Silverberg?) and that ambition. I was struck by that impulse to define. Around the same time, we were hearing the first of the gripes that the traditional short fiction venues were drying up, that short fiction wasn’t being read anymore, and that the online sites that were arising to replace or at least supplement--the old markets weren’t publishing as much SF as they were slipstream and dark fantasy. I debated jumping in on the discussion, but decided that, rather than speak out of ignorance, I’d do what I could about it. Thus, Fast Forward was born all short fiction, because that was what was at issue. All SF because while I have nothing against fantasy, slipstream et al., it was the lack of SF that was being lamented, and all original, rather than reprint, because the idea was to add to the pool of what’s out there. So the goal was nothing short of making an impact, hurling a rock at a window and seeing what shattered. Was it successful? Well, seven stories from Fast Forward 1 were reprinted nine times in four Years Best anthologies so at least it made that impact! The Fast Forward series has become part of the discussion, and several more unthemed anthologies have appeared in its wake.

Amazon.com: What do you think you, as an editor, have done better with this second volume?
Lou Anders: I think the excitement level of the stories has dialed up a notch. I’m very proud of my introduction, which manages to articulate my position on the importance of SF in today’s world more eloquently than I’ve done before. The cover has a gorilla on it.

Amazon.com: When you edit an original anthology series where you solicit stories only, how do you protect against mediocre material creeping in?
Lou Anders: The very wise Jacob Weisman, editor and publisher of Tachyon Publications, once said that when selecting illustrators for book covers, you shouldn’t pick based on the best work in an artists portfolio, but based on their worst. Because, he said, you had to be willing to live with the worst piece in the portfolio if that is what they hand in. That’s one of the most helpful pieces of publishing advice I’ve ever encountered, and it rules all of my own cover art decisions at Pyr. But it also has applications to editing invite-only anthologies. As much as I’d like to, I can't do open-reads anthologies and still fulfill my job as Editorial Director of the Pyr science fiction and fantasy line. There just aren’t enough hours in the year. But I love the short form and I want to always work in it, and so I must do invite-only. Therefore, I believe very strongly that the moment of editorial discernment falls at the point of the invitation. The best piece of general business advice anyone can give you is this: hire people smarter than you are and listen to them. I believe, firmly, that I am working with some of the best writers in the business, and I trust them to deliver. I avoid mediocre material by avoiding mediocre writers!

Now, that being said, it’s very important for an editor to guard against myopia. Also, across five professional anthologies (plus two magazines, plus one nonfiction anthology, plus one reprint anthology), I’ve learned that I’m not omniscient. (Fancy that!) Twice now, I’ve sat back in mystification as the story I thought was the weakest in a particular book was unilaterally hailed by critics as the stand-out tale (and no I won’t say which ones I’m talking about, or even which books). It’s taught me that tastes are subjective, which we all know but none of us believe, and that when you invite talented people, you trust them to do what they do well. Now I enjoy putting something out there that falls outside my comfort zone and seeing how it is accepted. I even learn by doing that. I know which stories I think are the best stories in Fast Forward 2, but those aren’t necessarily the ones you will think are the best. So far, the reviews seem to be spreading it around too, and not picking out the same ones over and over which I personally think are obvious stand-outs.

Amazon.com: What is it you look for in a good SF story? And how does it vary by subgenre?
Lou Anders: A story that could not be told without a science fiction angle. A story that includes a strong emotional hook. A story that makes me gasp. It doesn’t vary by subgenre it doesn’t vary by genre, or even medium. A story that moves us is what we all want.

Amazon.com: Is this an anthology for genre readers or anyone who likes a well-told story? And what do you think's the difference?
Lou Anders: There is a very small subset of the population who are incapable of reading or watching any story that does not take place in the present. I have a good friend who falls into this category. I keep slipping him tales by Paolo Bacigalupi, hoping their dire warnings for our very-near future might get through to him. He admits that they are exceedingly well-written, but says, Why the hell would I want to read about this imaginary stuff? But these people are a minority. I’ve come to view their condition as being akin to a food allergy. I will leave them alone and not bother them with my world anymore or chase after their respect or worry at their opinions. But for the majority of us, SF&F is so pervasive in all our media, not to mention in our vocabulary and our lives, that it is becoming silly to draw distinctions. We all respond to good stories well told. My favorite film is Casablanca. My favorite recent film is The Dark Knight. One is fantastical, one is not. Both are about bruised protagonists who must reluctantly become the hero. Both lose their love and ultimately martyr themselves for a cause that they believe in. Both are good stories.

Amazon.com: What about your job energizes you and keeps you from getting cynical about the business of publishing?
Lou Anders: Those are two different questions. What energizes me? Finding that amazing author or story that takes me back to my own introduction to the genre. Recently, that’s James Enge, whose novel, Blood of Ambrose (out in early 2009) fired my soul right back to the days when I was 13 reading Fritz Leiber's tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

As to what keeps me from getting cynical? There’s a device in my pocket that’s smaller than a pack of cigarettes that holds over 7,000 songs every piece of music I ever bought since I was in high school (except for Marilyn Manson, which I decided I could do without). When I want to know something I google it. If that’s not a science fiction neologism, what is? We are living in a science fiction novel, watching science fiction films set all-time box office records, watching science fiction books win Pulitzer Prizes, talking to each other over cyberspace a word bequeathed to us by a science fiction author. How can the relevance and importance of our genre do anything but skyrocket?

Amazon.com: What's the absolute hardest part of your job, either as an antho editor or editor of a line of books?
Lou Anders: Saying no to a piece of sheer brilliance because I know that the audience for it is about 200 people. I don’t for a minute believe that commercial and literary concerns are mutually exclusive (Neil Gaiman anyone? Neal Stephenson?). But not every worthy work has commercial potential. Trying to find books that fire on all cylinders means saying no to a lot of competent fiction that only fires on one or two. Being determined not to compromise on quality while still being commercially viable means that I am hunting in a very narrow bandwidth and have to read hundreds upon hundreds of submissions to find a very few prizes. I worry that a lifetime of saying no is bad for my karma, and have to remind myself that its the yes that the readers see and they are who I am serving.

Amazon.com: What would you like to do in the future with Fast Forward?
Lou Anders: Turn it into an anthology series for television. Not that anyone’s asking mind you, but that’s what I’d like to do. Failing that, I’d like to continue to find stories that engage with the present, and the day after.